Wednesday, February 14, 2007

My Honey’s Hobby

Since it’s Valentine’s Day, I have decided to write about my hubby’s hobby. B is a very creative guy. He loves to build things, he loves to paint, and he’s the only person who was able to convince me that it’s ok to branch out and paint the walls a wacky color. See, before B, I always thought houses looked cool when the walls were painted something other that white…I mean, who doesn’t think that? But, I was so nervous about taking that step and putting color on the walls…B broke me of that. In fact, the first year we were married and living in the ends-of-the-earth, aka East Texas, we spent a lot of time peeling flowering wallpaper from our walls and painting them bright fun colors.

Over the years, B has developed several hobbies (aside from watching football and playing golf)…he rolls his own cigars (yes, all you ladies out there, if you need a gift for your loved on…B’s cigars are great and he sells them for $3 each – that’s a steal!)…he’s painted a water color of each house we’ve lived in, he makes shadow boxes to remember our favorite trips, and he’s built a wet bar, a gun rack, and cabinets to hold our collections of shot glasses and golf balls. But, those aren’t what I’m here to tell you about today…

He also builds N Scale Model Train layouts. He liked trains growing up, but about 5 years ago, he picked it up again…our dining room table turned into a train layout. Luckily, he’s been able to upgrade since then. He now has his layout in the basement, starting in the storage/utility room, and coming THROUGH the wall into the main room of the basement.

It’s a never ending process. He is always adding to it or changing it, and he’s always looking for materials that will make it better. Last weekend we went to a model train show, and we bought model houses and miniature people to add to the layout. For those of you non-train people out there, an N scale train is about 1 ½ inches tall, so the people are VERY small.

A lot of what he puts into his layout comes from our own interests or places that we have visited. Last spring we went to Ireland, so one part of the layout includes the Cliffs of Moher. I spend A LOT of my time at the YMCA, so it has made an appearance as well. Of course, there is a golf course, a Hummer dealership, and a cigar shop. B used to work in the citrus industry, so there is an orange grove (complete with an outhouse to demonstrate where E-Coli comes from -- he has a sense of humor, too!). Almost all of the companies we have worked for have made an appearance in the layout somewhere.

The Hummer dealership is the building outlined in yellow below...it sits right next to the shoe store, which B says is where I spend most of my time. Can you find the sniper in the scene?

Since we live in KS now, a grain elevator HAS to make an appearance.

Here's the orange grove...the outhouse is somewhere right in the middle...you can probably see it if you click on the image to make it bigger.

This is one place we haven't visited yet...someday...

Here we are wishful thinking there was still a beach nearby...actually, it's the bank of a lake that sits right beside the awesome YMCA he built...

I’m so lucky to have such a creative husband. He balances my engineering, type-A personality very well! And it’s fun to go to the shows with him and watch him get so excited when he sees something he can use. Any kids we have will be very lucky that he’s their dad – those school projects will look awesome!